Tag: BJ Penn

The last time we saw Chan Sung Jung, “The Korean Zombie” as many prefer to call him, he was living up to his nickname as he tried to keep his arm from falling off during his bout with Jose Aldo. It was a true testament to his resolve and toughness that he was trying to pop his shoulder back into place in the middle of a fight. It’s that kind of grit that has had fans salivating for the return of The Korean Zombie for over thee years now. Well, good news is his military leave is up and he’s already been making the preparations for his return to the octagon. Jung also has an idea of who exactly he’d like to beat up upon his return.

BJ Penn’s comeback has been squashed before it could even begin, Nation.

Just 11 days out from his mildly-anticipated showdown with Cole Miller at UFC 199, Penn has been forced off the card after disclosing the use of a banned IV during training camp. Both the UFC and Penn have subsequently released official statements on the matter, which you can check out after the jump.

Following his “controversial” decision loss to Michael Bisping at Fight Night 84 in February, former middleweight champion Anderson Silva was booked in a quick turnaround match against Uriah Hall at UFC 198 this weekend. It was an odd, if intriguing matchup from a fan’s perspective, and one that presented an opportunity for two of the UFC’s flashiest strikers to secure a much-needed win.

But now, just three days out from their scheduled meeting, Anderson Silva has been forced off of UFC 198 with one of the more unusual injuries to hit the headlines this year.

Like most MMA fans who prefer not to see the legends of the sport continue to fight well past the twilights of their careers, we did not exactly take the news of BJ Penn’s unretirement well. Following his *last* unretirement fight — a one-sided, horrific beatdown to rival Frankie Edgar at the TUF 19 Finale – a teary-eyed Penn openly admitted to reporters that he never should have returned to the sport, leading most of us to believe that he had finally learned the lesson that so few fighters do.

But a broken spirit and a declining skill set is nothing that Master Jackson can’t fix, and as such, The Progidy…er…The Prodidy…The Prodigy is back!

If you’ve ever wondered what current day CagePotato would look like with slightly more readers and slightly less credibility, look no further than BJPenn.com. The site that owes its namesake to the former UFC lightweight and welterweight champ has become one of the more ridiculed destinations for MMA news over the years (next to, you know, *us*), having been accused of blatantly stealingvideos and entire articles from other MMA sites without attributing the proper credit on several occasions. It’s also been criticized as being regularly prone to grammatical mistakes, which is arguably even more shamful. Shamful, indeed.

But we’re not here to take pot shots at one of our peers, we’re here to talk about the rather horrific accusations that one of the BJPenn.com’s former writers have lobbed at the man himself following a falling out with the website.

No matter how many times we say it, it appears that fewer and fewer MMA fighters are willing to abide by our ban on unretirement. The latest fighter on that list: BJ Penn.

Yes, after hinting at a union with Greg Jackson and calling out Nik Lentz last week, Penn officially announced his second unretirement on today’s MMA Hour, stating “I’m coming back for honor. I’m coming back to do this, give everything I got.”

Despite not scoring a win since 2010, having his soul stolen by Frankie Edgar in his last octagon appearance, and admitting that he “shouldn’t have come back” before emotionally retiring for realsies in the evening’s post-fight press conference, BJ Penn…wants to come back. And not only that, he wants to come back to face Nik Lentz, who has been goading him into a fight on social media for months now, in March. This is sad, we’re all sad for hearing it, so on and so forth…

It all started when Penn snapped the above photo with Greg Jackson, with the caption “We coming!” Jackson later told reporters that he was “very optimistic” about Penn’s future following a meeting with the former two-division champion, who then proceeded to formally challenge Lentz to a fight at UFC 197 on March 5th.

Penn chose an ambitious timetable for his return, to say the very least, and yesterday evening, Lentz responded with what must be the most cold-blooded takedown in the history of combat sports.

A HawaiiNewsNow report published yesterday filled in a few more details about BJ Penn‘s alleged assault of a friend in Maui over the weekend. As the story goes, Penn and Kuuipo Mokiao were drinking together at a bar called Kauhale’s in Kihei on Saturday night, when Penn began picking a fight with people inside. Mokiao told investigators that he pushed Penn to stop him, and Penn responded by challenging Mokiao to a fight.

Mokiao apparently agreed to go outside with Penn, which means he has bigger balls than we do. But the altercation quickly turned violent once they headed into the parking lot, as Penn suddenly punched Mokiao in the face, then kneed him in the forehead while he was defending himself. According to the HawaiiNewsNow story:

(This will have to do until the mugshot is released. / Photo via Getty)

Retired UFC legend BJ Penn was arrested on Saturday night at his hotel room following an altercation between him and an unidentified friend. As first reported by MauiWatch.com, Penn “was staying at the Four Seasons Maui when police responded and encountered an inebriated Penn. According to [MauiWatch's] anonymous source, Penn severely assaulted the individual and left him fleeing back to the hotel room where the arrest was later made.”

BloodyElbow confirmed the report with local police, stating that the Maui County Police Department “were unable to provide further details other than the fact that he has already been released.”

I can only imagine what BJ Penn‘s fans were thinking when they saw the gaunt, sickly featherweight version of the former two-division champion trudge to the ring for his “Why God, WHY?!” trilogy fight with Frankie Edgar at the TUF 19 Finale. I mean, I can’t technically say that I’m a fan of Penn or any fighter for that matter, lest it interfere with my fancy journalistic oath (*takes off “Chris Lytle: State Senator” shirt and puffs pipe*), but even I had to admit that overwhelming sadness induced by his performance that night was only outweighed by his breakdown during the evening’s post-fight press conference.

When we learned that Penn had actually brought in renowned dietician Mike Dolce to help him make the cut to 145 lbs, it was even more surprising to see the final product that was his emaciated, just-a-nickel-a-day-to-save-this-boy’s-life frame. Although Penn wouldn’t go into detail at first, he was highly critical of the infamous “Dolce Diet” and more or less alluded that it was a crock of sh*t. Now a month removed from his fight with Edgar, Penn feels that enough time has passed to start pissing in Dolce’s cornflakes, telling BJPenn.com that the $20,000 he paid Dolce for three weeks work was nothing short of charity:

BJPENN.COM: One of the first things he said was that he had no influence in your last training camp. Is that true?

BJ Penn: “He said he had no influence in my camp, but he brought in sparring partners, did my food and diet, and had me do his treadmill, plyometrics, and core routines. I don’t know what he’s talking about.”

BJPENN.COM: What was Dolce’s fee for all this?

BJ Penn: “I hadn’t been to 145 (pounds) in 18 years and that cut was intimidating. I wanted to get it right, so we brought in Mike Dolce, and paid him $22,000.00 for 21 days of service. That’s $1000.00 per day plus a $1000.00 tip.”

BJPENN.COM: Dolce said he filled your place with food, pasta, free range beef, all these things including tons of sea salt. In his words, “enough food to feed a family of six”. True?

BJ Penn:“There was no food in the apartment, and he never told me what to eat.